Former JJ72 front man Mark Greaney is returning to the capital to play his first Irish solo show in Yonkers as he begins the promotion road for his forthcoming solo album which he’s been recording over the last few months with Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers) and Ciaran Bradshaw.
As well as new solo material, Mark will also be playing some JJ72 hits to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut album and you never know what else will get thrown in.
Tickets There is currently in the middle of one of these music review shifts. No longer interested in solely reporting the exploits of our chosen favs or 100% metal, we’ve decided to shift back to indie and see how things are in the world of polite calmness, heavy guitars, geek cloths and neck scarf’s. Turns out, things aren’t too bad, not with Belfast heads, Kowalski hammering their ever so nice and likable Thrills–with-balls sound into our heads all morning.
Their Breaking Tunes may not be overburden with tracks but the three the band has provided are a lovely introduction and sign of their song writing scope. Opening with the dance driven Little House, this is where we pull the Thrills reference from but it’s oddly likable. Very polished and well recorded. nice build throughout and some great changes. Nothing wrong here, moving on.
Seesaw is the one that really grabbed us, the guitars in the song are so un-expectedly full on. You can take the boy out of metal (but you can’t shut the fucker up from writing cheesy ass shit – Ed). Starts off a little more basic band than Little House and even manages to get a couple of verses and chorus of friendly, ‘lets go for a walk’ niceness before it turns out they’ve been lying! These guys kick ass on this second chorus. Very simple, spacious and mixed with the harmonies make this track a seriously good song.
Final song Sunshine State has a lovely feel to it. Again spacious and the lads pull on that unmentionable Irish band’s grandness in their songs but, if you got to learn from someone, might as well be the ‘best’ ahem. Good chorus, sticks in your head.
Well, that’s Kowalski. TT is happy to say we recommend and for all you gig starved Dublin residents, here’s a treat. They’re playing The Workman’s Club in a few hours for the SquareD Management Launch Party. Tickets are only €5.00
Well, we weren’t going to mention this but we decided not to take the Perez Hilton approach and only report the good but our benefactor (speaking of which, where’s the check Mr. Rose?) has decided it’s finally time to sue Guitar Hero III. Well, he’s suing the makers of the game Activision for $20 Million (Yikes)..
Legal Mumbo-jumbo from Skip Miller, Rose’s attorney- “This lawsuit is about protecting Guns N’ Roses and ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ and is about holding Activision accountable for its misuse of these incredibly valuable assets.” He further adds, “The relief we are seeking is disgorgement of profits and compensatory and punitive damages.”
They’ve also got some other stuff in there about Sweet Child O’Mine being used in Guitar Hero II and something along the lines of Slash’s character not being allowed to associate himself with Guns N’ Roses..I don’t know, who cares? It’s good old uncle Axl doing what he does best, pissing people off.
Personally, we at Tickets There think this is a message to anyone who thought the Duff McKagan reunion in London may become more widespread. If we hear anymore, we’ll let ye know (expect a Wikipedia update in 5 years that the case was settled out of court and a comment from Slash either saying ‘I don’t know what Axl’s doing’ or ‘I Can’t comment on that’)
Not sure what to make of this one but apparently Def Leppard’s 2011 tour (for the States presumably, official details are still pending) will feature none other than Kansas (Carry on my Wayward Son / Dust In The Wind) and Heart (?? Two folk chick singers) as co-headliners / Special guests.
Several members from Leppard have hinted over the last few months that a tour and possible album/EP release will come out in 2011 and all ‘unconfirmed reports’ aside, this seems to be 100% go and we’re just waiting for dates.
Dashed are Tickets There’s dreams that Whitesnake and the Lepp might make the 2008/9 line-up a permanent tour feature. Ah well, maybe we’ll all become Kansas fans soon, the Americans seem to like them. We’ll bring you more when we have it. I guess it’s time to call Joe Elliott up for a cooling bottle of Down ‘N’ Outz and find out exactly what’s going down.
There’s a new music management company in town and they’re launching themselves tonight in style with a double performance from Alarmistand Kowalski in the Workman’s Club. Both bands are the first signatures to SquareD Management who are looking for some up and coming Irish talent to lavish their years of experience in the music industry on.
Tickets are a very special, IMF guaranteed deal of the week price of €5.00 on the door.
Tickets There has beeb listening to both bands all week and we can highly recommend this show as a great way to relieve some of this weeks stresses, Be there or be SQUARED (too corny?)
It may not be any great secret, but The Walls are currently Tickets There personal favourite Irish band (oh yes). How did they achieve this mighty honour? By release two albums of great material and lining up a third one which could be their best yet.
Over the past six months, The Walls have been playing shows (three of which we’ve been fortunate to catch), released two album previews (Carrying The Fire / Phantom Power) and music videos for the album’s first single, Bird In A Cage and new song Stop The Lights.
On top of this, they’ve invented a whole new stage show to aid the new albums promotion by making it cost effective for the band to travel far and wide without comprising the music or resorting to the bog standard two lads and guitar. We have DVD’s now and don’t need no Dylan’s!
Anyhow, with the album’s release year getting close, Tickets There thought we’d share the info we have so far with you fine people so you can start creaming yourselves in anticipation just like us….in a non weird way.
What do we know? Well we have the set-list from the bands show at The Sugar Club earlier this month. We’re not saying that the majority of those tracks will be on the final cut but there’s several titles for ye to play with.
And finally, videos. We have two official videos from the band and both can be viewed below. Believe us, this material is well worth seeing and hearing. Both fantastic, lovely songs that will add a little light into this bleak week of financial ruin for the country. One spin of Stop The Lights and problems shall recede.
(Video Trivia – Bird In A Cage was shot at the first ever Temple House Festival held in Co. Sligo this year while Stop The Lights was filmed at half time during the Ireland Vs Australia Rules match in Croke Park and features Gavin Fox (of Idelwild / TURN / Concerto for Constantine fame) handling Bass duties while Joe plays keyboards and guitar)
Follow The Walls on Tickets There and more importantly the following sites,
Irish people can’t get enough of the auld instrumental these days. Without name checking a bunch, let’s just say the market is quickly becoming one of the most loved on the underground scene, even beating the Def Leppard Retro Revival Coven Tickets There started well over five years ago. These things are a fad of course while Def Leppard is forever, bow down.
Anyways, since ‘the world’ is pressuring us to continue taking about what’s ‘in’, we thought you might like to hear about Alarmist, an up and coming instrumental band from Dublin. So far we’ve only heard two tunes and already we’re hearing a distinction in their music not duplicated from the others currently making names for themselves. For fans of Chequerboard and The Rednecks, these guys are for you. Well orchestrated music delivered with excitement and excellent playing ability. Not convinced with Giraffe Centre ?(I know, but thinking of quality names is harder these days), then the ending of Vitamin Saturday (really hard) will sell it to ya.
The band aren’t heavy, but they’re also not so devoid of sound that’d you fall asleep buying their album. Very nice from a new crowd and one we’ll be revisiting once they get a few more finalized tracks together. Check them out when they play The Workman’s Club, Thursday November 25th.
…oh, and hop over to their Bandcamp Profile for a spin of le tunes 😉
Innercity Pirates have been the band of choice for Tickets There recently. Still working from the bands MySpace Player (because we’re broke ass bloggers, too shy and lazy to ask for promotional material and even more lazy when it comes time to reply to mails offering stuff). One problem, there’s only four songs up. Curse you MySpace, there should be a four album minimum when a band is this good.
While you were wondering what side of the planet Tickets There fell off, we’ve been busy, busy repeating the same four songs over and over again because we apparently love it when bands mix The Foo Fighters, The Pixies, Silly fun and a little bit o-Punk and stick it all in one place. It works we tells ya.
Seen it All Before, Love’s Over, Locked in This Game and Bang Bang are all fantastic pieces of music. They’re not out competing for Stairway to Heaven’s title or anything but given the choice what we’d prefer to hear at this very moment, these four win hands down. There’s no messing, no nonsense and the talent is more than strong enough to turn these slightly silly compositions and turn them into very decent, guitar driven belters. The vocals can take some adjusting, it took us a while to figure out of lead singer Russell Toomey is pulling the piss or for real but they work so well after a few spins that they become the last thing you’d change. It’s over stretched and its kick ass.
It’s Friday, it’s International-Piss Up night and Tickets There feels (very strongly I might add) that this band right here (see name in articles title) are the ones that’ll make home drinking a lot more fun. Check out their MySpace now and while you’re there, check out their artwork, worth checking out on its own….check out. That’s four in one sentence, beat that!
Jägermeister have announced November dates for their Freezer Sessions series of gigs. Taking place in Limerick, Galway, Dublin and Cork, the shows are committed to bringing you some of the most exciting up and coming names Irish music has to offer.
Bands already confirmed include O Emperor, Windings, Last Days of Death Country, Dark Room Notes, Ladydoll, The Riptide Movement, The Mighty Stef, Ham Sandwich, Kid Karate, Maud In Cahoots and New Amusement with more to be announced soon. For a full list of dates, check below.
Iron Maiden have announced a UK your set to kick off next July. The jaunt is the biggest UK tour the band have played in yonks and they’re even taking time to hop across the pond and wave those flags in dear old Belfast.
So far 10 dates have been announced, stretching from late July to early August with the Belfast show slotted in for August 3rd, but unfortunately for Irish fans, you’ll be facing train and bus charges as no Dublin date has been included in their European schedule. The full list of U.K. shows can be found below,
July 20 – Glasgow SECC
July 21 – Aberdeen AECC P&J Arena
July 23 – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
July 24 – Sheffield Motorpoint Arena
July 27 – Nottingham Trent FM Arena
July 28 – Manchester MEN Arena
July 31 – Birmingham NIA
August 01 – Cardiff CIA Arena
August 03 – Belfast Odyssey
August 05 – London O2 Arena
Maiden have promised to include a healthy dose of Old and new material in the set-list as well as brining a stunning light show and the one, the only Eddie! Tickets go on sale November 20th priced £40.
It’s excellent, no fooling! Laim Gallagher’s post-Oasis band Beady Eye have released their debut single, Bring The Light and it’s a perfect mix of classic guitar pop, sexy sixties dance vigor and that never-say-die rock n roll attitude we all secretly love about Liam.
Rather than the expected Beatles / Oasis rip off we all thought he was going to churn out, Liam has released a genuinely fun, thundering Piano / guitar driven masterpiece of song writing. It’s simple, it’s short and it’ll rock the ‘expletive’ socks off you. If we still had vinyl juke boxes in our diners, Bring The Light would be the song Danny Zuko would stick on. Now, let’s see what further treats their album has in store!
Ireland’s favorite instrumental mongers, The Redneck Manifesto have announced a short European tour for December which kicks off with a Dublin headlining show at The Button Factory on December 1st. So far seven other dates have been announced with another two to come. Also scheduled to appear for the majority of the dates is French instrumental pop outfit, Crëvecoeur.
The Redneck’s latest album, Friendship was released in March and was their first album since 2004’s I Am Brazil. Full list of confirmed dates below,
Dec 1st: Dublin, The Button Factory
Dec 4th: Lille, La Matlerie, w/ Crëvecoeur.
Dec 5th: Liége (Belg), Le Tipi, w/ Crëvecoeur.
Dec 6th: TBC
Dec 7th: Paris, L’espace B, w/ Crëvecoeur.
Dec 8th: Reims, Le Ludoval w/ Crëvecoeur.
Dec 9th: Luxembourg, L’Orca w/ Crëvecoeur.
Dec 10th: Nancy, Le Totem, w/ Elephant Micah & Lipstick Standard.
Dec 11th: Lyon, Le Sonic, w/ Crëvecoeur.
Dec 12th: TBC
As the white mist creeps over the black lit swamp, the blurry figure of Jape maestro Richie Egan can at long last be seen emerging, synth clutched tightly. At long last the excellent Jape are blowing of the cobwebs for a full blown tour with Fionn Regan and ASIWYFA(they really should be called ASIWYFA for short. From now on, tell everyone we said it first!). Now the tour we already reported on and we don’t repeat news here (*coughs) so you’re guessing there’s another reason for all this unnecessary gibberish.
Jape have announced a headlining show at Dublin’s Button Factory for December 17th. No word on support, tickets are even a flyer yet but you know TT, we’ll update this post as soon as the details come in. Click here to see
From the site that never brought you Oasis, we decided this had to go out. The moment has arrived when the world will finally know the answer to that age old question, “how long would Liam Gallagher survive without Noel to help him along?”. The infamous hell raising Mancunian and his new band Beady Eye are set to release the first single, ‘Bring The Light’ from their forthcoming debut album tomorrow and fans only have to visit the groups official site for a free download.
Tickets There will be watching this with a grin. In many ways we’re hoping Liam comes out with a cracking piece of music. Not like Noel has exactly been prolific as a songwriter since the mid nineties so let’s hear what Liam can do. If he fails, he just lives up to expectations and that won’t be anywhere near as fun.
Ah thank sweet lord Mary, a band who isn’t boring us to depression wrenched tears. God, sorry for the total lack of updates from yours truly (and Anto) recently, the drought was shocking. Not one bit of motivation after the announcement that Humanzi and another of our favorite bands have probably packed in the game for good. Not too worry tears won’t be wasted on this filth (well, not here. We sob like babies at night…babies!). Instead of wallowing in torturous misery we’ll continue our quest to find good music and spread the word to the people. Today we’re delighted to say we got one, The Bonnevilles.
Never seen em, don’t have their album….but we’ll probably have to pick it up now.
Ah what does Tickets There want from life? That’s right! We want two stripper girlfriends, a lot of drink and some good dirty music to accompany. The Bonnevilles have delivered one of the three and this makes us smile. Mixing their styles between a little rock, post punk, garage rock and even a little bit of country, the band has a strong, authentic sound. Good Suits and Fightin’ Boots is a dirty little stoner rock number with a nice greasy blues guitar ridding through. No Law in Lurgan & Murderers Song confuses us. If it’s one song, it’s savage, if it’s two, it’s still brilliant! You’ve
No major need to go into details of all the songs, they’re all rockin’. Hard to imagine this band not having a real cut-throat vibe and presence on stage. The desperado overtones of God Might Love Me really gets this across so Tickets There will be making a serious effort to catch their next Dublin show. There’s a few different styles thrown in on their songs with a great down toned density to the recordings. Just great but then again, how are you not going to like a band that lists it’s top three influences as Howlin’ Wolf, Motorheadand Wine ?
If you haven’t heard of Sweet Jane yet then we here at Tickets There think it’s about time you did. Fronted by former Mainline / The Brothers Movement guitarist Danda and the wonderful fully fledged fashion icon, Lydia Des Dolles the band have been racking up glorying reviews from around the country since the release of their debut album, Sugar For My Soul in July. On top of this, the band seems to be doubling their fan base every time they play a show, release a single or speak in public and word is still spreading. Praising reviews are also beginning to pour in from the States and Europe meaning we may soon lose them to the glamour, sunshine and fine wines so get on it!
Sugar for My Soul has been on heavy rotation in the Tickets There corporate offices for the best part of a month now and we’re still not sure how to describe it properly. Each song has its own individual appeal but all of them still retain the bands excellent echo filled, spacious psychedelic monopolized sound and firm beat driven foundation. Cleverly, the band has managed to deliver an array of different styles such as pop, rock, indie and guitar dance without compromising the records overall tone and impact. The stripped back, jam styled simple splendor of Close Your Eyes, Texas Tears, Don’t Hold Your Head So Low and Something for My Soul sit in perfect harmony with the heavier ‘on your feet’ pieces like Bleed, War Cry and Fade To My Heartbreak.
Without going too in-depth into the albums styles and diversity, it’s important to note that it’s just a very good, very appealing album. The band hasn’t attempted to replicate Pink Floyd style construction and have instead focused on writing very enjoyable pieces of music and made sure there’s something for everyone. Lydia’s softy delivered vocals mixed with Danda’s edgier harmonies and experimental guitar styles deliver the perfect package that can be enjoyed by all music fans. If you’re going to buy one Irish album this year (cheapskate!), make it Sweet Jane.
It was meant to be a test run but with Tesco now sold out of pumpkins, I guess it’s final. You’ve seen our KISS-kins and King Diamond Pumpkin. Now it’s time for Megadeth’s always controlling mascot Vic Rattlehead to get the Halloween treatment 😀 Happy Halloween everyone!!
The excellent Jaded Sun are hitting Dublin’s Workman’s Club tonight to launch their brand new EP, Whiskey Drinker. It’s the first new release since 2008’s Gypsy Trip album and after giving it several spins this evening, Tickets There is delighted to tell you the band have lost none of their edge. The EP’s title track and Sweet Mary are currently leading the pack on our fav. list and there’s a tasty remix of Crave thrown into the bargain. All tracks will more than likely get an airing tonight so heading in will be more than worth your while. Bout time we got a great home grown rock band back in Dublin!
Support tonight comes from El Hombre Jokes and Doors are @ 20:00 sharp. Head in, have a laugh, hear some kick ass rock tunes and go home smiling. Tickets There will be the ones annoying everyone with our soon to be infamous rendition of ‘Higher’. Hell yes!
YES!! The Walls have released a live recording of Bird In A Cage from their forthcoming album, Stop The Lights.
Tickets There has been waiting for this moment with bated breath, sweaty palms and excited trousers for nearly five months. It’s been stuck in our heads on solid rotation for the better part of four weeks and now that it’s out, we’ll be responsible for half the plays on YouTube until you good folks take the plunge, change the norm and invest your time in some high quality tunes from one of Ireland’s greatest bands.
So without further spewing from us, feast your eyes and ears on the High-Def, surround sound, pro-shot video for Bird In A Cage. When you’re done, keep your eyes peeled on Tickets There for more Walls news…..or, you could just go see them when they headline The Sugar Club on November 5th. Oh Yeah!
Well it seems Jape have started something as more and more Irish artists take advantage of this here internet phenomenon. JJ72’sMark Greaney is the latest to take the plunge and add his name to a site which went online this week.
If you’re a JJ’s, Concerto for Constantine or solo fan, then markgreaneymusic.com/ is well worth checking out as it includes pics, news, a forum, videos and of course, lots of music from Mark’s forthcoming solo album, old JJ72 hits and even a few cuts from their un-released third album.
Mark will be updating the site weekly with new songs so make sure you hop over now before the list is changed.